How a group of ex-homeless have created a rooftop garden on the iconic Southbank Centre

Most of the men and women here have been homeless, have battled drug addiction or have been in prison. They have been brought together through a collaboration between the East London-based Providence Row Housing Association and The Eden Project, based in Cornwall. The garden itself was designed by Eden's landscape architect Jane Knight and designer Paul Stone although the volunteers had an input into the final layout. Pulford, himself a former homeless heroin addict who slept among dustbins in London, began gardening when he became a tenant in one of Providence Row's housing schemes. He began to tidy up the green spaces around his block and an idea blossomed. 'I loved gardening as a child. My adoptive dad was in a wheelchair so he would instruct me and I'd weed and plant,' he recalls, going on to describe how his childhood interest has become crucial to his recovery. 'When...